Best Irish Women Musicians to Add to Your Playlist

Irish women are thriving in the music scene, even though they receive only a fraction of the Irish radio airplay they deserve.

How often do you hear Irish women featured on your favorite radio station?

Among the top 100 songs aired on Irish radio in 2025, merely three spots were filled by Irish female artists. Irish music accounted for just 11% of the top 100 most-played songs on Irish radio last year, and within that slice, CMAT, Jazzy, and Ali Sherlock came close to parity with their Irish male counterparts in the same category.

While this might look like progress on paper, the underlying issue remains – Irish female artists occupy only a tiny fraction of the top 100 most-played tracks on Irish radio. The lineup continues to be dominated by international acts and Irish male performers.

The broader landscape still reveals a pronounced under-representation of women in Irish music broadcasting and in mainstream festival lineups.

Drawing on statistics from Why Not Her? A Manifesto for Culture Change, the 2025 book by Why Not Her? founder Linda Coogan Byrne. The work is a data-driven appeal to dismantle systemic gender and racial inequalities in the music industry. Based on two decades of Irish Singles Chart data, Linda and the Why Not Her team uncovered:

• For every female act that reaches the chart, 4.6 male acts do the same.
• Male acts have seven entries for every single entry by a female act.
• For each week a female act spends on the chart, a male act spends 11.5 weeks.
• 71.1% of Top 10 singles over the past two decades were released by Irish male artists and bands.

To do our part to help balance the scales, we’re sharing some of our favourite Irish female artists that you should add to your playlist immediately.

CMAT

It’s fair to say that 2025 was Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson’s, known professionally as CMAT, year. Taking the Irish music world by storm since 2020. CMAT’s 2025 album Euro-Country became a global sensation, with viral success including the creation of the ‘woke macarena’ – a dance that coincided with her song, Take A Sexy Picture Of Me. We can’t wait to see her star continue to rise.

Pillow Queens

Formed in 2016, the Pillow Queens are an Irish indie rock band composed of co-lead vocalists Pamela Connolly and Sarah Corcoran, lead guitarist/backing vocalist Cathy McGuinness, and drummer/backing vocalist Rachel Lyons.

Biig Piig

Biig Piig, the stage name of Jessica Smyth, is an Irish singer and rapper who is currently based in London. The name was inspired by a pizza from a place near her home. She describes the decision as ‘a drunken mistake that kinda stuck.’

Jazzy

Jazzy, otherwise known as Yasmin Byrne, is a Dublin-born dance-pop singer-songwriter and DJ. You’ll know her best for her house-influenced vocals and top-charting hits. She’s also leading the way in transforming the Irish music industry, becoming the first Irish female artist in 14 years to hit No. 1 on the Irish singles chart with Giving Me.

Soda Blonde

This alternative pop band traces its origins to former members of Little Green Cars and has built a loyal following in recent years after releasing two albums in 2021 and 2023 to critical acclaim.

Lyra

Lyra, also known as Laura MacNamara, has kept herself busy in recent years. She is crafting a new era of music following the success of her self-titled debut album, which topped the Irish charts in 2024. Teasing her forthcoming album on Instagram, we’re still awaiting the exact release details. We can’t wait to see what she creates next.

Tomike

Tomike, born and raised in Dublin, is a singer-songwriter, producer, and DJ now based in London. If you’re into electronic music, you’ll want to add Tomike to your playlists.

Holly Macve

Described as possessing vocal qualities reminiscent of Chris Isaak and Patsy Cline, the 29-year-old has three albums to her name, with her most recent release in 2024.